Hello hello... Are my e-mails that boring or are you all suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome? jk. I know, now that the sheer excitement of cliff hanging has come to an end it's just not that thrilling... well, let me tell you, that is just not the case. Ever speak four foreign languages in one conversation with one person in two minutes time before...now that is excitement.. can't find the exclamation point.. in Switzerland, the y and the z are in opposite places on the keyboard..., otherwise, I'm back up to speed.
So, let me recount my last few moments of interest. Last night, as my last day in Paris was coming to aclose I went out to eat with my new international friends. We went out to a phenomenal Indian restaraunt that gave Bombay House a runnin'... but no veggie coconut kurma, so red ribbon only. It was the perfect way to calm down a bit before boarding the train. My last day in general was very relaxing. I spent most of it with this kid, David, from Colorado... a new person to visit on my drive back to Utah in Dec.... We went and saw Cats and Dogs, the movie.. I know, I know.. but I loved every second of it, especially this one line.... and I will reward anyone who sees it or saw it and can tell me the line... It brought tears of laughter to my eyes, but then look who we're talking about here. Then we went to a quaint coffee shop and talked and read our books... When the day was over and good-byes were said, I hopped on the metro and headed to the big station to catch my train to Bern, Switzerland. It was a night train so I could sleep on it and spare the cost of a night's lodging. It was great cause I shared a bunk with two other American girls and we locked the door, all was safe and cozy. When I got into Bern at 7am it was still dark and raining so I decided against walking around the frightfully large town with marginal public transportation and a pack too big on my small back ... and kept going on to Interlaken.
Interlaken seemed like it had potential to be cool. That's where a lot of people hub and take off on their adventures to climb, sky dive, hike, raft, bike, etc..so you can imagine the scene. I walked to the hostel and was shocked at the sight of all the English speaking tourists hanging around, watching CNN, playing ping pong, eating breakfast. Everyone was very welcoming and informative about the town and what I could do while there... but I got the impression that too many of them hung around the hostel all day... then I met an Australian couple that were heading home that day and they told me to check out Lauterbrunnen...just 25 more minutes by train. They gave me the skinny on the quaint family run hostel in town and had me sold in 5 mintutes with a few words and one postcard photo of the valley.. That's where I am now at 3pm. I'm going hiking in just a few even though, much to my chagrin, it is rainey, misty and damp everywhere... still fabulous.
So, back in Interlaken is where I had my multilingual conversation. It was hilarious to me.. I was so confusing myself.. This is why. I am in German speaking Switzerland but hadn't planned for that at all. I was ready with a little French and Italian, as they speak Italian in the south.. So I walk into a bakery, famished and really wanting some bread and cheeze. I start out with 'Good Morning... due panini, per favore' The kind old woman who had been speaking German with the previous customer replies 'due?' (that's Italian) I say, 'Oui' (that's French?) Then I say, 'E formaggio, mais no fuerte' For the monolinguals out there.. the previous sentence goes Italian, French, Spanish. Then she pulls two out and says 'no forto' (Italian) I smile to myself at the knowledge that at least fuerte in Spanish was close to forto in Italian which both mean 'strong'... I had too much strong cheese in France. So, she gives me the option of two and I point to one and say 'Questo'(Italian).. She acknowledges it with a gesture and I say 'si'. When all is said and done, having been given the cost in Italian, I say.......'danke' What a great conversation(exclamation point) Where is that thing? It's too important in my writing (exclamation point). Anyway, Switzerland is just amazing. I can't believe I'm actually here, seeing things like the Bavarianbuildings similar to both those in Leavanworth, Washington and Cortina, Italy. I also can't believethat this place is just as real as any movie or cartoon made it seem, with the St. Bernard and Bernese mountain dogs, the yodellers, the swiss cheese, the suspenders and high socks with leather boots, blondes, great chocolate, the Sound of Music in the hills and mountains like I've seen before in other coolplaces....;) but different.
It almost hurts to be here knowing that I am leaving in a few days... but the next place will fascinate me just as much and the place after that and after that and so I must keep going even though I would like nothing more that to stop and get very acquainted with the people and their five thousand languages.. If you want poly-lingual kids, do it here. It's just perfect .....! yeah! I found it!!!!! CtrlAlt Delete.... arghhh.
By the way, all of you must do yourselves the favor of booking a flight out of the country now. You don'thave to travel this year, but go ahead and get your tickets.... I'll let you choose the country, how nice of me. But may I recommend Switzerland, Ireland, Thailand, Italy, Spain... I'm getting dizzy. I know some of you already have trips planned, great! And some of you are inspired by my travel and so maybe you will hop to it, but by no means do I want to bug anyone with my constant pushes toward travel... it's just so damn good for the soul to see the world... and if I can do it with five little words in each language, you can too! And there's a lot of people way worse than me with languages... and reading maps and catching trains and finding hostels.. but really all of that is so easy and look how many friends I made.
Last night (back in Paris) in the Irish pub where we finished up our evening, I convinced this lad, Johan from Germany, to throw caution to the wind and join us spontaneously in Cinque Terre on Saturday. Once he said yes, it ocurred to me that by then, he would becoming from Basel, Switzerland and could pick me up on the way, so we are meeting in Lucerne on the station side of the old wooden bridge... now how does that sound? Random, I know, but how perfectly awesome! I save money on a train fare, he has company for the ride and I get to see the Alps by car and then the five of us rent an apartment for a week and travel around Cinque Terre for the whole time with a home base. Beaches here I come, mountains there I go. The best of both worlds in one week...
Any takers on Spain or Sardignia yet. By the way,(again) I want to marry Michealangelo, even though he has a smashed in face, but he says that with the amount of time he has to put into his sculpting, it's just not really fair to me, so we're just gonna be friends... When in Rome, before my flight out, I'm going back to Florence for a day trip to see David again, along with some things I overlooked in theBargello Museum.. like the Bacchus and I also want to see the Holy Family painting he did for Doni, which is in the Ufizzi cause I just read about that whole drawn out comission and it cracked me up.... Are you all reading The Agony and The Ecstacy by Irving Stone yet????
Well, I'll be back on line tomorrow and I would love to hear from ya's. Take care. Love rai...
ps, dad tells me Seamus is still doing great, got to go for a ride in my truck with him the other day. I can just picture him riding with his nose pressed against the windshield, leaving perfect little nose dots all over so that my passengers throw sideways glances at me, wondering why I let him get away with so much... :) love to my dog and family, of course.... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¨ciao
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